Strong stand for Christianity

For someone who grew up in the Presbyterian Church, was baptized in one, married for the first time in another and married the second time by a Presbyterian minister in his home with his wife and family as witnesses, the church has a longtime connection with my life.

So when the Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly Thursday voted overwhelmingly to allow its ministers to perform same-sex marriages in states where it is legal and to change the church’s constitution to define marriage from “a man and a woman” to “two people,” I paused for a moment, looked skyward, and said “thank God. It’s about time.”

Thursday’s decision follows a move by the “mainline” Protestant church in 2010 to ordain openly gay ministers — and such moves are leading a number of congregations, including some in Floyd County — to leave the Presbytery.

I am told that one of those churches, sadly, is a “rock church” that my grandparents helped found. It hosted funerals for those grandparents and my mother.

Sadly, the “word of God” is too often misconstrued and used to promote intolerance and bigotry towards those with views that some either don’t understand or choose to condemn for reasons that I, and others, find counter to the teachings of what we consider religion and/or Christianity.

Amy and I both have friends and relatives who are openly gay. One of my gay first cousins took care of our paternal grandmother in Florida until the day she died. I do not know a kinder, gentler, more caring man. A close friend in Northern Virginia is gay. He retired a few years ago from the Navy. On the wall of his home is a shadow box containing the Navy Cross he won serving his country in Vietnam.

Yet from the pulpits in Floyd County and elsewhere, I hear such people castigated as sinners or “deviants” in sermons that urge condemnation because of who they choose to love and the way they choose to share their lives.

Such attitudes, to me, are non-Christian and counter to the religious teachings I received as a child or practice as an adult.

On Thursday, the Presbyterian Church (USA) joined the United Church of Christ, the Quakers, the Unitarians and both the Reform and Conservative Movements of Judiasm in welcoming gay couples into the their religions.

With the grace of God, we can pray that others will join them and follow what we consider the true meaning of real faith in this world.

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DOUG THOMPSON

Long-time newspaperman, photographer and videographer who, at age 71, still shoots photos and covers government and courts for a BH Media newspaper, shoots video for TV and documentary use and owns websites that include Blue Ridge Muse and Capitol Hill Blue.

6 COMMENTS

This is a sad time indeed. If one would look at the Bible they will see it is against God’s principles, does it not state one Man and one Woman to wed? What happened in Sodom and Gomorra? God destroyed them for homosexuality. I am tired of media and other liberals telling Me I have to accept it. I say ACCEPT my christian belief as you expect me to accept yours. Seems no one has to tolerate Christian belief’s but we have to tolerate everything, isn’t that one sided????????

Accept whatever you choose to believe Randy. That is your right. The media is reporting what is happening within religion today. How you and others deal with it is up to you, not us. Nobody is forcing you to accept anything and no one forces me to write or report that is presented here.

Your reply Doug tells us Christians all we need to know about your belief system. You do not uphold the God of the bible nor do you esteem HIS WORD to be important. You dismiss the word of God as simply teachings of men while at the same time you embrace TEACHINGS of MEN as your standard to uphold your belief. You can not by any definition of the term be called a CHRISTIAN for you do not believe Jesus nor accept his teachings as sound. You accept the teachings and dictates of fallen man over the teachings of a HOLY and JUST GOD. You are in need of salvation and to obtain that you need to repent of your foolish ways and acknowledge JESUS as LORD. In other words HIS WORD must be accepted and believed in order for you to escape the hell that awaits you.

Now I said all of that and did not once mention your lifestyle choices I simply addressed your belief system which is faulty thus leading you to make foolish life choices.

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